Gender and Diversity Pay Gap Report

Garden staff working at Chartwell, Kent | © National Trust Images/Kate York

Read our latest Gender and Diversity Pay Gap Report and learn about the work we're doing to close the gaps within our organisation. The report reveals how our gender pay gap compares to the national average and why we've committed to publishing our diversity pay gaps on a voluntary basis.

A pay gap measures the difference in pay between the average of two different groups of employees in an organisation, regardless of the work they do. Like every large organisation, we’ve declared our gender pay gap reporting since 2017. We also voluntarily share our disability, ethnicity and sexual orientation pay gaps.

Our latest Gender and Diversity Pay Gap Report was published in January 2026 and provides a summary of pay and people data as of 5 April 2025.

Read the Pay Gap Report

Gender pay gap findings in 2025

Our gender pay gap results continue to show overall improvement since our first reported figures in 2017.

In April 2025:

Women make up 67% of our workforce
We maintained a good balance of women and men in senior roles
The average (mean) hourly rate paid to men was 6.6% higher than the average hourly rate paid to women.
This was an improvement of 1.2% on our 2024 figure and below the UK’s mean average pay gap of 13.4% (Office for National Statistics, 2025).

Our gender pay gap exists because we employ more women in lower-graded roles, such as retail, food and beverage and visitor services, where the majority of applicants have traditionally been female. These roles make up a high proportion of our workforce, which impacts the calculation of average hourly rates for women and men.

We remain confident that we pay men and women equitably for doing the same or similar work.

More details, including our median averages, can be found in the report.

Staff and visitors in the garden at Washington Old Hall, Tyne & Wear | © National Trust Images/James Dobson

Diversity pay gap findings in 2025

It’s important that everyone has an equally positive experience of our work and feels welcome, whether they’re a visitor, volunteer or staff member. We call this work Everyone Welcome, and it’s why we’ve committed to publishing our diversity pay gap findings even though it’s not mandatory.

Many of our diversity pay gaps have shown positive progress compared to April 2024.

Disability pay gap

In April 2025 our mean disability pay gap was 2.7%. This means that the mean average hourly rate paid to employees who don’t identify as disabled was 2.7% higher than the mean average hourly rate paid to disabled employees.

Ethnicity pay gap

In April 2025, our mean ethnicity pay gap was 1.0%. This means that the mean average hourly rate paid to white employees was 1.0% higher than the mean average hourly rate paid to employees who are people of colour/people of the global majority.

Sexual orientation pay gap

In April 2025, our mean sexual orientation pay gap was 5.7%. This means that the mean average hourly rate paid to employees who have shared that they identify as heterosexual was 5.7% higher than the mean average hourly rate paid to employees who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and other sexual orientations.

Currently, there aren’t any national benchmarks to compare these pay gaps against. We’re working hard to improve both our gender balance and diversity across the organisation and will continue to monitor these pay gaps alongside gender.

Full details, including our median averages, can be found in the report.

I'm pleased to share the continued progress we're making. Moving forward, we'll maintain a culture of openness and honesty when it comes to pay and we'll continue to ensure our policies and practices help us become a more inclusive and diverse workforce at every level of our organisation.